It's the Journey
by Avelona-and-Sally
Summary: After a long absence, Jake Long returns to New York to fix what he'd broken. Meanwhile, Haley's being romanced by an incubus, a long-friendzoned Nyx is trying to get into the returned Am-Drag's pants, and an anti-human group is rallying in the magical community. The Long siblings will have to work together to pull through - but how, when one of them once turned his back on family?
1. Chapter 1

"Damn it!"

"Haley? What's goin' on?" The voice of her older brother's female friend asked her.

"They're chasing me," said the she-dragon as she ran down the New York street.

"Well, considering you just tossed the three of them into the Hudson via old fishing net, I'm not surprised." The tell-tale sound of the last of a soda being sucked through a straw came through the earpiece.

Haley made a mental note to enforce the 'No Eating While On-Duty Unless It's Absolutely Necessary' rule more when she saw Spud. Speaking of which… "They shouldn't have been breaking the rules!"

"Oh, come on – is stealing an apple all that bad?"

Both Haley and Trixie gave an eyeroll at the man's cluelessness. "When an apple is stolen from an elven clan - " Haley began.

"I can finish this one, hon'," Trixie said, "You just focus on getting' away from the trolls."

Haley didn't bother to answer and started beating her wings more frequently to increase speed.

"Elf tribes are especially protective when it comes to their plants because elves are actually quite close to birds and since birds live in trees, they have a soft spot for trees. While they cannot fly, elves are especially fast and light – they can leap cliffs and things like that. Stealing from their trees is like taking stuff from a human's house. Fruit is especially valuable, for obvious reasons." Trixie recited.

"Hey, you're getting pretty good at remembering things like that," Spud commented.

"No thanks to you," muttered Haley under her breath.

"There she is – split up!" A just-barely nasal voice called behind her. She was glad that her brother had told her about his experience with trolls, otherwise she would have tried her fire… _That_ wouldn't have ended well.

Haley gasped and started beating her wings harder, her breath becoming more ragged and out of control. "When will they give up?" She asked, not bothering to keep pace with her flying anymore.

"There's still an hour 'till dawn – you've gotta keep going!" Spud's voice became more urgent, abandoning the laid-back tone he'd been using.

"Damn it!" Haley flew upwards, deciding to risk being seen, and began using her arms and legs to assist her, running up buildings and grabbing onto the unsteady bottoms of fire escapes. She got halfway over the ledge of the roof before she was grabbed by the throat and forcibly lifted away from the wall. The troll doing so grinned nastily; over his shoulder, she could see two more climbing up the opposite wall's fire escape. She struggled against the male's grip, trying to get enough air to hack a fireball at her captor; the pressure on her throat increased.

"Don't think you can wiggle your way out of this one, fireworm," he breathed, exhaling breath rancid enough to dizzy her.

_Home. _ She just had to get _home._ Their townhouse had enough wards to keep out the entire group. Determined to throw off her captor, she clawed at him, but her dragon form wasn't as big as Jake's and she couldn't wrap her tail around his arm. Black spots were appearing in her vision.

She couldn't feel the troll's hands anymore.

She couldn't even feel her de-transformation.

[-M-]

Jake Long, American Dragon, inhaled deeply. He wasn't quite sure why, but the first place he'd ended up in was the Magus Bazaar.

All of the stalls had remained as they did in the day, as if all the people just up and left, though his new, improved _Eye of the Dragon_ revealed enchantments weaved over the shops and stands to prevent thievery. It wasn't eerily quiet, however. Crickets chirped, the paper streamers and metal chimes made noise as the breezes stirred them and some conversation spilled out into the street from the apartment buildings that many shops were built out of.

His goal was one of these. Quietly, he made his way over to No. 18, checking the sky with immense paranoia, and, finding it sufficiently safe, knocked. After a few moments, the door opened. Jasmine, blissfully free of scales or glowing red eyes, smiled at him.

Throughout his travels, she'd been the only person he'd spoken to in New York, simply because she'd had the least contact with his family and friends while still being a part of the magical community – and he could trust her not to exploit his absence. She'd moved into the apartment of her family friends after they'd moved out and became available for keeping him in-the-know about NYC's magical community (and his family) since then.

He gave a nervous smile, eyes fixed on the stone around her neck – designed to surpress her transformation – and stepped inside, placing a kiss on her cheek and saying 'Hi' in return for one from her. She took his coat and sauntered into her kitchen, putting a kettle of tea (personally, he preferred energy drinks, but his grandfather had made him drink enough of the stuff to tolerate it) on and cranking up the heat.

As she moved around, taking out convenience-store cake and cheap mugs with XOXO and World's Best Sister written on them, he searched for what he'd brought her from Oklahoma – a small figurine that had been shaped to bring good dreams, a luxury he knew she didn't have often.

"How was your trip, Jake?" she smiled, eyes becoming softer, "Or, should I say 'how were your travels?'"

"It depends on what you want to mean," he replied, looking into his tea.

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, "I _mean,_ what did you find out? Do you think you're ready to come home yet?"

He cracked a smile, "Yeah, I think so. I went all over the Midwest this time. Brought you this," he gestured to the figurine, trying to pretend the dent in the brass woman's skirt was supposed to be there, and not the result of careless handling. "It'll make you sleep better."

She blinked a thank you, "Yeah. The pills help with the transformations, but not with the nightmares."

"I figured."

"Mm."

She took a gulp of her tea and he mirrored her, unable to help himself from making a face at the bitter flavor. She giggled and pushed his slice of German Chocolate cake at him, smile become more pronounced when he took and immense forkful and ate it by wrapping the _Tongue of the Dragon_ around the entire thing and pulling the fork out of his hand and into his mouth with that alone.

The clock struck eleven-thirty. Jasmine gave him a significant look.

He raised an eyebrow. "Now? It's too early. Or too late."

"Well, you're not sleeping on my couch. Or in the park," she said, _the tone_ showing itself. He didn't answer. She sighed, tracing the rim of her mug with a well-manicured finger, "I heard about some trolls causing trouble with an elf clan last night. The _new_ American Dragon is probably dealing with them – " she froze, staring at the space Jake had occupied.

"That's not even funny," she said to the empty room.

[-M-]

"Are you alright?" a voice said to Haley, brushing her hair out of her face and shifting underneath her.

She quickly opened her eyes and sat up…only to find herself in the lap of one _very_ attractive guy. He smiled at her, tucking the lock of hair he'd been playing with behind her ear.

"I saw you get mugged," he explained as she got off his lap, "Didn't think it was possible for a dragon to need help against _trolls._ But, hey if it's one _this_ cute, anything's possible." He leaned in from his laid-back stance to place a peck at the corner of her mouth, causing Haley to draw back. He was almost _too_ perfect. It was like she was falling into him…

"_Get away from her!"_

Both teens jumped apart, turning towards the source of the yell and finding the snarling, red maw of one very pissed male dragon. Taking that as his cue to leave, the boy slunk out of sight, his figure melting into his shadow, which then ran away. Haley watched the beast.

"Jake?" she asked.

Anger melting away, the creature nodded, completely off-guard when the slight girl flew at him, still looking human, and throwing punches like a Gatling gun. Together, they flew over the edge of the building, still struggling, even as the dragon wrapped his strong tail around the girl and lifted higher into the air.

"You bastard!" she screeched, kicking him and scratching at every part of her brother she could reach, even as the sharp scales cut into the skin exposed by her skirt and short sleeves, "You sick bastard!" Used to struggles in the air, Jake kept flying, even as she grappled for his wing and attempted to snap it with her (weak) force.

"Do you know how much time mom spent _crying_ over you? Dad found out about the secret, of course, how could we _not_ tell him when I started sneaking out and breaking into buildings and _lying_ to everyone?!" Haley said, sobs now making the words completely unintelligible and erratic, "And to top it off, there's that shit with the _Matutinus!"_ she finally collapsed against him fingers still scratching at his armor, though they were doing a better job of smearing blood all over him than anything else, what with the excellent defense his hide had.

Jake faltered in his flying, carefully setting them down on a quiet, nondescript street and taking her hands in his, taking her fingers and uttering a healing spell before giving the same treatment to the scrapes on her thigh and the bruising around her neck, though it only cleared it up a bit. The girl finally collapsed, burying her face into his shoulder, ignoring both the unfriendly feel of the leather against her face and the frenzied apologies he was stuttering.

"And you know the worst thing? If you'd just _been _there, even for a bit, you would've fixed it all. No problem. That's what you _do,"_ she said, finally turning her face away and returning his embrace, "Even now – I mean, I _hate_ you, but this…" she squeezed tighter to make her point, "…this is just about the only good thing that's happened since you left. You coming back."

"I'm sorry," he said again, hand awkwardly moving over her hair and back – which was probably bruised, he guessed from her flinch, but she wasn't telling him to be gentler and he didn't think he could. She was his little sister and she was hurt and it was his _job_ as her big brother to make everything better again. It was his job as the American Dragon to make sure no magical creature ended up like this. "I should've left behind some – some tips, or a note or something, but… I don't know… I just…didn't."

"You're an ass."

"Yeah."

"I'm glad you're home."

"…Yeah."

He gripped her tighter, pushing the questions about the trolls or the incubus from the building aside for now. He had to enjoy this moment. He knew it wouldn't last.

[-M-]

Susan had long-since learned to stop waiting up at night for the American Dragon to return, and Haley's new responsibilities had only caused a slight change in the regular sleeping schedule, Jonathan staying up late on occasion, but eventually getting used to his daughter out of the house at night. Jake leaving had disturbed more sleep than anything else, but his year-and-a-half long absence had given them more than enough time to get used to it. The loud crash that came from the front door, however, had everyone running downstairs quickly and staring it shock at the sheepish nineteen-year-old who was rubbing his neck nervously.

There wasn't really anything that could be said – instead, the energy was used to get over to Jake as soon as humanly possible and giving him tight hugs from both sides, Haley coming in and making sure her addition to the hug reached both her parents so they _knew_ the family was together again.

As soon as the hug was over (and it wasn't over for a good while), Jonathan rushed to call Lao Shi and Fu, and Susan moved to make yet another pot of tea. Biting back a complaint, Jake settled down at the table and listened to what life had been like at Jonathan's job, asking questions about the few people whose names he remembered, both of them pretending to be lighthearted for the moment, though the conversation was too polite and unfamiliar.

The quiet talk was never interrupted, but came to an end upon Lao Shi's entrance nonetheless. The Ex-American Dragon was short, stopped, with silver hair and skin sagging and spotting with age. He had never looked more majestic.

With a fluid movement more graceful than anyone in the room had ever seen him do, Jake was on the floor, hands, knees and forehead on the ground in the traditional _kòu tóu, _to show exactly _how_ much he was ashamed to have left, ashamed to have abandoned the time and training and family here for him.

"Honored grandfather," the words tumbled from his mouth in a mess, "Please forgive my dishonorable actions. I have shamed my family and for that there is no excu – "

The blow came quickly and hit him right in the left ear, a hairsbreadth away from a deadly strike, with enough force to make his entire self crash into Susan's cabinets and cause the doors to fall off or hang, kept in place by only one lousy joint. Jake tensed and closed his eyes, waiting for more, and not wanting to see the looks on his families faces. Unexpectedly, he was gathered into a hug by the old man.

The time passed hadn't decreased his strength in the slightest; the aging limbs still held the power and tranquility he'd known growing up. Awkwardly, he hugged back, unable to stop his breathing from becoming uneven in response to the sobs wracking his grandfather's body.

After an eternity, Lao Shi pulled back to look his grandson in the eye. "You have caused your family much pain, young one. You have caused the magical community much pain. Why have you done this?"

"I…" But he couldn't say it. There was nothing _to_ say. He just left. There were things that needed to be done, places he needed to see, people he needed to meet. He'd learned things on his journey – he could cast magic with the rest of them now, fight anything and everything. San Francisco knew of the American Dragon, as did Chicago and some obscure town in Idaho. He could live on his own – could, for a very short time, fund an apartment with the money he'd made – and hold a job. A few romantic endeavors taught him a thing or two about girls and sex. He'd found his inner self, he'd grown _into_ himself, and was ready to take on the world as a man, not as a teenager.

And it seemed Lao Shi could see that in him, because he relaxed and took a seat, everyone finally bustling once he'd done so. Fu received a hug as well, then took a mug and sat down to participate in the discussion about what had been going on at _home._

New York City was changing.

A _new_ cult had emerged, one that wasn't opposed to the magical community, but rather spreading throughout it. Like a cancer.

The trolls had already chosen sides, but they were the only ones anyone could be sure of. Anyone was an enemy.

But, despite the despondent topic and injuries on both teenagers present, there was an air of hope around that table.

The American Dragon had returned.

…

…

A/N: More writing for a fandom no-one reads. Pretty stupid if you're a review whore like me.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hello?"

"He's back."

Rose raised an eyebrow, "A little more specific, please, Trixie."

A handful of strawberries made their way into the blender, with half a tablespoon of honey. Allowing herself a moment of weakness, the blonde put the entire spoon into her mouth and licked the sweetener off, resolving to cut her dessert of dark chocolate chips in half tonight. Maybe.

"Jake. He's back."

The spoon dropped from her fingers. "Jake?" A shower turned on, in the back of the apartment, and she guiltily wished the owner of the pants neatly folded over her kitchen chair hadn't come to town last night as well. Though it was probably too late now. "How is he?"

"I'm not sure. I just heard from Fu. Thought you'd like to know." The African American girl's tone was clipped, undoubtedly hearing the hope in the blonde's voice. Rose winced. The girl's opinion of her hadn't improved since high school.

Despite the (only _somewhat) _reasonable accusation, Rose's tone was firm when she replied. "I'm not gonna go after him." Her eyes traced the diamond ring on her right hand. "I've got someone to commit to now."

"I didn' say you would, blondie. But good to know."

Rose sighed, "Bye, Trixie."

"Bye."

[-M-]

"Hello?"

"89?"

Barry hissed, nearly dropping the phone in shock, "Huntsgirl?"

"Don't call me that!"

"Then don't call me _89!"_

Cautiously, AJ came in, alarm in every movement. "What does she want?"

Muttering, the brown-haired boy turned his attention back to the woman on the phone. A few seconds later, he hung up and sunk dazedly into a chair.

"What? What is it?"

"The American Dragon. He's back."

[-M-]

"I'm up! I'm up! I'm up! What is it?!"

"Jake is back."

The man stilled, a mixture of emotions crossing his face. "Jake Long?"

"Who else?" Click.

"Hans? Is everything alright? You sounded…" Then woman froze at the expression on his face, girl on her hip letting out a whine of disapproval.

"Nothing! Everything is fine, darling! Ahahaha…"

The woman gave him a skeptical look, "The last time you said that, half our possessions ended up covered in fur." Troll fur, he corrected inwardly, and it had been _such_ a hassle to get rid of without exposing to sunlight.

He gave a nervous smile, "Everything is alright. Better than it was," he promised. Taking a look at the dark circles under her eyes, he took the child from her, "Get some sleep; I'm calling in sick today."

"What for?"

"An old friend just got back to town."

[-M-]

"Ahoy." Silence. "Um, hello?"

"What was _that?"_

"Well, recently I learned that 'ahoy' was one of the options when people were considering greetings on the phone. And speaking of greetings, yours is overdue," the Brit said, some annoyance creeping into his voice.

"Okay, Nigel," Haley said, rolling her eyes. "Guess who's back in town."

"Beyonce?" he ventured, "Who?"

"Jake."

Concentration shot, he abandoned the attempt to heat his tea with magic lest he blow up his apartment. "Jake?"

"Yeah."

"Are you okay?" he said, trying extra hard to get how concerned he was across.

"I'll be fine," she laughed it off, "Just wanted to let you know."

He bit back a comment about spiked chocolate syrup. Mentioning a lapse would get him nowhere with the overachiever, and it looked like that was who he was talking to, rather than the wreck whose calls had been more and more frequent. He guessed it might've been a crush, but after several months of patting her back and thanking her for sending roses to various girlfriends, he doubted it was romantic affections the girl was after. Though _how_ he'd ended up a big-brother figure was anyone's guess. "Thanks for the news. I'll stop by and kick his arse sometime."

Quiet. "I…I know I shouldn't, but thanks," she replied.

"Anytime. Really – anytime. He's had it coming for two years."

"Yeah." The wreck was on the horizon. "I've gotta go."

"Call me if you want to get ice cream."

"I shouldn't…"

"You're an eighty-five pound Asian girl, Haley. You won't gain weight."

She giggled, "Bye, Nigel."

"Bye, love."

[-M-]

"Fu! Is it true?! Everyone's saying…" the goblin stilled at the look on the Shar Pei's face, "Not that I usually listed to gossip, but…"

"Yeah, it's true, he's back," the dog ceded. "What's it to you?"

"Well, that's great, isn't it?" the creature grinned, "The American Dragon, on our side!"

"Woah, woah, woah – the kid's just gotten back!" Fu said, irritated growl making the goblin back away, "Needs some time to adjust, you hear what I'm saying?"

"Well, sure. I just meant – "

"I _know_ what you meant," he barked, advancing angrily, "And I'm telling you right now, if your schtick scares him off, after almost _two years_, you're gonna find out _exactly_ why a Shar Pei's got so many wrinkles."

"Gee – don't bite my head off! I just wanted to know. And why'd he leave, anyway? Fu?"

Fu didn't answer, taking the basket of potion ingredients and walking sedately back to the metro stop. In all likelihood, he'd already said too much. Indeed, around him whispers had started up, and he caught the words 'American Dragon' far more than he would've liked. Two blocks away from the station, all conversation hushed. Fu looked up to find none other than the Am-Drag walking a lovely _(familiar)_ lady to her door. Quickly, he stashed the basket behind a stall and padded quietly after them behind the cover of several out-of-commission stalls.

" – 'd they take it?" she asked, hands lost in the pockets of his much-larger jacket.

"Not well," the kid gestured to the bruise stretching across and around his left ear, "But it's a start. Mom and Dad are happy to see me, at least." An awkward pause. "You were right."

"Of course I was," she said with a smile.

"I shouldn't have just up and left like that, and I should've written. Or something. But…" he gestured helplessly.

Her expression softened, "Look, I get why you did it, even if it was really stupid. But, maybe next time, you'll take my advice? You know…avoid NDEs?" Her finger traced the bruised cartilage and the boy shuddered.

"Listen, I wanted to thank you for…being here. I mean, not just in NYC, but _here._ For me."

"It's no problem."

"And…"

She gave him a quizzical look.

"I wanted to know if I could help you out somehow." With practiced ease, he fished a key out of his pocket and unlocked her door, holding it open with all the suave of someone who's done it before, a lot. Once she'd stepped in and he held his arms out for the jacket, but she held onto it, drawing inward. "Jasmine…"

Swiftly, with all the inhuman quickness Fu knew magical creatures possessed, she weaved through his hands and covered his mouth with hers, arms coming around to encircle his neck, torso pressing tightly against his, and heels escaping shoes as she tried to match his now-greater height.

And then the door shut in his face, and he was left his disheveled hair, no jacket and the biggest lost-puppy expression Fu'd ever seen.

Letting out an enormous sigh, Fu waddled out from behind the stalls, "Wanna explain who that was?"

Not missing a beat, the kid began walking, bruised mouth for once not shooting off.

[-M-]

The first person outside Jake's family to see him when he got back, apart from Jasmine, was Stacey Wintergrin.

She was just as gorgeous as she'd been in high school, all made-up eyes and curled hair, perfect nails and toned, sinewy physique. He would've thought the kid on her hip was a loner, had Jasmine not informed him over the phone that Spud…had reproduced. The baby had clearly just learned to hold its head up, and blinked curious stormy-blue – the standard, before they settled on a color – eyes at the stranger in the red leather jacket. He never liked her because of her way of making him feel inadequate with every small gesture of hers; now was no different. "Who are _you?"_

"Jake Long."

"Excuse me, darling, would you move, please?"

She did, her boyfriend giving her a smile before pulling a fist back and snapping it forward to bloody the dragon's nose. Jake couldn't imagine a punch from Spud ever hurting, but, as he stared up at the towering figure and held a surprised hand to his face, obviously, things changed. Spud no longer wore layers of shirts and skater-shoes. He wasn't a skinny, gangly kid, either. He was six-feet-six-inches of office-clothed, lean muscle. The puzzle pieces clicked into place as Jake realized that the unexpected birth of Artie, Jr. was what had caused this unimaginable change:

Stacey's pregnancy _couldn't_ make things difficult for her – babies _ate_ money, and so did living in New York. Arthur Spudinski stepped up. The apparent genius put his foot in the door _just _as it was about to lock him out of the horror of a desk job forever and caught one before it was too late, quickly snatching enough money to support a family. Angry magical creatures seeking some information on the American Dragon's whereabouts would've seen his kid as a golden opportunity to snatch a bouncing, bundled hostage and try and make the sidekick cough up info he didn't have – and so the wiry, weird boy became a tired, muscled man.

And, from the looks of it, she appreciated this, because she gave the bleeding dragon a dirty look before stepping over him, all perfume and baby and diaper bags – professional mom stuff – and walking, nose in the air and hands smoothing downy fuzz back from a curious little face, to the cheap carpeted staircase.

"That was for Haley. This is for me and Trixie and your gramps and your parents – and everyone else you screwed over when you left, asshole." A shiny, un-scuffed shoe connected with his side. The healing factor didn't help with the pain from the cracked rib, just like it didn't help with the broken nose.

Then a hand, knuckles blackening from too-hard, too-fast contact with dragon bone, came down, and hauled him up and into the apartment for tissues, stitches and soda. And a _long _talk.

[-M-]

The American Dragon was down for a second time that day outside the apartment of Trixie Carter, hands cupping a very injured part of his anatomy.

"You've obviously run into Spud already," she said, gaze raking over his two black eyes and the way he favored his left side.

"At his apartment," the boy grunted.

"Well that makes me feel better," she said with a smile, "I'd feel bad if this was all we could do to _get it through your thick head_ that what you did was _not_ okay."

He remained silent.

"You're not a _kid,_ Jake! We all were, when we hung around you and chased down the Huntsclan with you, but that was _serious _stuff, a'ight? I don' regret it – I'm _really _glad I could be there for you when the goin' got tough, n' it was pretty cool sometimes, bu' you were _there_ when Haley said she wasn't ready an' when she couldn't handle the job. You were there for _every moment _of the training with your gramps, and you _knew_ how much everyone _depended _on you, and you…" Trixie said, words becoming more and more clear as her anger caused her enunciation to become better and better.

"I know," he said, sorrow mixing in with pain from her kick.

"Then why would you leave?"

"I don't…" he sighed, finally able to stand, "I don't think I could explain it."

And when he looked at her, she could see it would take a lot more than a kick in the balls to get him to pour out his feelings, so she couldn't do much except pull his sorry ass into her apartment for more soda and a talk. And if he complained about talking about feelings, she would kick him again.

[-M-]

"Hi."

"Hi."

The future Mrs. Rose Morton shifted nervously, hands smoothing over neat, black pants. Her mouth was getting dry and she took a gulp of iced tea to wet it. "Look, Jake, I'm not going to ask about why you left, and I'm pretty sure you've already heard from everyone how awful it was that you did, but..." Oh, it was hard. "We can't be together."

"I know."

"Huh?"

"I know you and Brad got together when you got back to the city. I had a friend here…she kept me informed."

Rose's eyes narrowed onto his slightly swollen lips, and felt hurt, somehow. They were _meant_ to be. Endless amounts of dream-scrying, soul-searching, magic predictions made by the light of the moon clearly showed the red string that tied their pinky fingers together. They were soulmates, and to have him agree that yes, she did have a responsibility to her future husband, and no, she shouldn't 'give him a chance'…hurt. She'd gotten over him, or she thought she had. She didn't want him, but, apparently, that didn't keep her from wanting him to want her.

"Well…that's a relief," she said glumly, taking another gulp of her tea and wondering if she should've asked for something from the bar. A waitress came by and gave them both menus; Jake requested a cold Red Bull and left it at that. "Look, things have changed since you left. I don't know how updated your friend kept you, but there are some things that she might not have brought up."

"Like what?"

"The Matutinus."

"I heard from Fu it's an organization – "

" – An organization bent on showing humans just how superior magical creatures are," Rose nodded. "The problem is numbers, but natural disasters, war and dictators are taking care of those. They just need a few more hurricanes."

"What do they plan on doing?"

"I haven't been in the loop with everyone; seeing a Huntsclan member again really wouldn't help with gathering pro-human sentiment. Trixie and Spud, from what I know, have spent these last few years with Nigel, learning magic and combat in secret."

Jake nodded. Jasmine had told him.

"Rotwood's stayed with them, but mostly he studies independently," Rose said, giving a smile at his surprised expression, "Nutty principal wasn't so nutty after all. He's got a wife, a little girl, and a place where his field is taken seriously now."

"Guess I should pay him a visit, too."

"Magical community wasn't so happy about him at first, but they've warmed up. He's all about integration, and the Matutinus hate it," her tone took on something like admiration, "He's a real revolutionary when he gets going." She sighed. "88 and 89 are living together, I think just staying out of the way. From what I know, they occasionally take a job delivering or picking things up for people in the magical community, but I haven't heard anything impressive. I've got their number if you want to call them."

"It's fine. As long as they're not slaying anyone." A cold energy drink was placed in front of him, and he took a long chug, setting the empty can down soundlessly when he was finished. "I should go." He stood.

"What are you going to do about the Matutinus?" Rose asked, feeling the need to stand up herself, but wanting to preserve the cool, professional vibe _he'd_ been giving off.

He gave her a look. "I don't know. I'm gonna get a job and an apartment first, contact everyone who needs to know I'm back in the city…" His eyes hardened. "Then I'll see about the troublemakers who've been giving Haley and everyone else a hard time."

"They're starting a revolution, Jake, you _can't_ look the other way."

"I won't," he said, "But I need to get a feel for the climate first."

She nodded, then felt her cell phone buzz. Brad. For the first time since he'd seen her the dragon smiled. He didn't say anything, but deposited enough money to pay for his drink on the table, then hopped the iron fence that separated the tables from the street.

Smothering a sigh, Rose picked up. "Brad? Hi, honey…"

…

…

A/N: Please, _please_ review. Tell me what you think about these new character-types.


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